Skydiving Portrayal in the Media

[rapper4mpi 0]

This is similar to the post in Safety and Training on how skydiving is portrayed in the media. Real TV and any skydiver that submits accidents to this show is not helping the sport. BUT sometimes when we try to help the sport as in Skydive Miami's attempt on MTV, it can come back to smack us in the butt. Check this out. The first part in an email I sent to Skydive Miami, the 2nd part in the response. I apologized to skydive Miami since then.
After watching the MTV Road Rules/Real World Challenge segment on
skydiving, I was a bit confused. Why would a reputable DZ let MTV show the sport of Skydiving in the manner that it did. Your chief instructor said "If your reserve fails you will die", come on, you know it is not cut and dry like that, and I hope you would know that whatever you say, may be taken out of context. I'm not blaming Skydive Miami, or trying to start an argument, I'm just concerned that when we can get the kind of coverage that you did, that you take every precaution that everyone lands safely. Two of the "cast" members hammered in pretty hard, how could you let that happen? Just so
they could score some points? I was not there, but this seems like it could have been avoided. What were the busses doing parked where they were? What about the prize X-terras? I feel safety was slackened just for the opportunity to host this event. I know MTV is influential, but someone missed the boat on this one. Why were cast members giving radio commands to the students? This coverage singlehandily could have attributed to many possible students choosing not to try our sport. Speaking only on behalf of myself, I say thanks a lot....Try to be a little more thoughtful in the future. I would welcome a reply to my letter. I may forward this to the industry publications, but I am not one to write something without hearing both sides of the story, so I hope to hear a reply, otherwise I will assume my assumptions are true. Again, I mean no harm by writing this, I'm just very concerned, I would appreciate being proven wrong. Thank you for your time.
blue skies
Hi, thanks for your concern about how our sport is portrayed by the media at times. As you can well see, MTV presented a very one-sided view of the complete training process for an AFF Level 1 skydive. I will answer your questions in the order that you have asked them : They repeatedly asked the question (the film crew) "What happens if both
parachutes do not work?" to which our CI, after trying to work diplomatically around the obvious, finally provided them with the answer to their question. It's a tough situation because they could also have also shown on TV a negative version of him avoiding their question (which he did for a long time). Landings: We have a ten acre landing area for our operation, bordered on all four sides by open farmers fields (literally hundreds of acres). The buses were on the south edge and the Nissans were on the north edge, winds
were out of the east at 5 mph. Canopies were the latest Navigator 280's from PD. We use the standard flight plan were a student remains in the holding area until 1000 ft, then they do their downwind, base and final as per normal. The way they edited the footage makes it look like other cast members were giving last minute instructions to their team-mates, nothing could have been further from the truth. After a student had deployed and done their canopy check and was in the correct holding area, this was the
only time that team members could say a FEW words to their partner under canopy. The instructor then took over as per normal and assisted with the flight plan. We had numerous safety briefings (not shown on MTV) were we told the participants that if we noted any un-safe practices under canopy that they would be immediately disqualifed. MTV wanted the viewing public to be under the impression that it was a competition, so they edited accordingly. In reality there was no competition because the instructors,
using the radio, set-up each student on a long final approach, it was pure luck if they landed in the peas, undershot by fifty feet, or overshot by fifty feet. MTV obviously thought that this lacked drama, and edited accordingly. Please also remember that out of this group of twelve students who did not exactly choose to come skydiving, some had a lot of natural talent, while others obviously did not. I am an AFF instructor myself, and
the reality of it is that no matter how comprehensively we train a student, there is a certain percentage that will overload and be unable to perform up to standard. I agree that two hard landings out of twelve is unacceptable, but these were twelve unique individuals, to put it mildly, and we did our very best with an extremely experienced staff to look after everyones safety.
MTV and the viewing public unfortunately want only the drama, we as skydivers always seem to struggle to get people to understand why we love our sport so much.
Michael, I could go on and on about all the extra safety precautions we
took, MTV chose not to view a single one of them. Please reply to my side of the story, I do understand your concern.
Sincerely,
********
I guess no matter how hard we try, big money will always win out!
-Rap

[MarkM 0]

I can totally see MTV doing what skydive Miami said they did. That station went to crap somewhere in the early 90's when they went from a station that played music videos to the station that "was" music.

[LawnDart21 0]

They may be a crap station, but as long as they keep showing Shakira videos, I'll be glued to the screen! Damn she is a hottie!!!! Britney who? It's all about Shakira in my humble opinion.........LOL
"I live to EFS"
Tom

[scottbre 0]

Editing video is very similar to editing text. If you do it right, you can make it look/sound like someone did/said anything you want them to.
20 million bathtubs can't be wrong. . .

[LawnDart21 0]

Here's a picture of me and Shakira hanging out at Quincy before we made a balloon jump.
'I live to EFS"
Tom

[Scratch 0]

Newspaper headlines:
Skydiver falls to his death in Citrusdal.
Truth:
S/L student has fatal heart attack under fully functioning canopy.
This happend about a year ago.
Go figure.

[scottbre 0]

Damn! You got da mad fotoshop skillz! 20 million bathtubs can't be wrong. . .

[Scratch 0]

Quote

Here's a picture of me and Shakira hanging out at Quincy before we made a balloon jump

ummmmm
Arn't you a little small for her?

[n2skdvn 0]

i was wondering what that box next to one of the balloons was
now I know!!!!!!!
this space for rent........

[GrumpySmurf 0]

She's been a jem hidden in Latin America for some time (part Arab, part Columbian, I think) - I think she is engaged to the son of 'former' (which one, eh?) president of Argentina.

[kingbunky 3]

it's all about sensationalism (is that a word?"Jumping out of planes for the thrill of it all."
-J.Geils Band

[n2skdvn 0]

i have coutnless vids (that i shot myself)
that i will never let the media get ahold of
i love my sport too much to let it get tarnished
i have even had tv camramen offer me money
and i told them flat out no!!!!!!!
the wuffo world views skydiving as a circus attraction
id like to show them diffrently.
this space for rent........

[LawnDart21 0]

She's alot taller in real life.................

[skymedic 0]

Just remember she is columbian/iranian....nasty nasty combo..that ends up in a tasty treat......last time I dated a columbian I was very very afraid..even though she was SOOO funnn in soo many ways.....
marc
BSBD

[rapper4mpi 0]

Glad to see everyone loved my post...
-Rap